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C£od»»»s  of  higher   educo/tlon 

Oft   oaf  Christ  ten     youth 


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*     APR  27  1907      « 


The  Claims  of  Higher  Education 
on  our  Christian  Youth. 


ETHELBERT  D.  WARFIELD,  LL.D., 

PRESIDENT  OF  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE. 


The  Kentucky  Resolutions  of  1798. 

An  Historical  Study,  by  Ethelbert  D. 
Warfield,  2nd  .edition,  pp.  203.  Pub- 
lished by  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons,  New 
York.  Price,  $1.25. 

Christian  Education. 

Inaugural  Address  as  President  of  La- 
fayette College,  by  Ethelbert  D.  War- 
field.  Price,  25  Cents. 

The  Evolution  of  the  University. 

Inaugural  Address  as  President  of 
Miami  University  (1889),  by  Ethelbert 
D.  Warfield.  Price,  25  Cents. 

The  Place  of  Athletics  in  College  Life. 

A  Plea  and  a  Protest.  By  Ethelbert 
D.  Warfield.  Price,  25  Cents. 


The  Claims  of  Higher  Education 
on  our  Christian  Youth. 

AN  ADDRESS 

Delivered  at  the  Presbyterian  Rally  of  the  Christian  Endeavor  Convention , 
Boston,  July  1 1,  189s. 


ETHELBERT  DUDLEY  WARFIELD,  hh.B., 

PRESIDENT  OF  LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE. 


EASTON,  PA.: 
LAFAYETTE  PRESS. 
.       1895. 


Reprinted  from  The  New  York  Observer. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


http://www.archive.org/details/claimsofhigheredOOwarf 


The  Claims  of  Higher  Education 
on  our  Christian  Youth. 


THERE  was  a  time  when  higher  education  was  the 
privilege  of  the  few.  Not  merely  in  that  far  dis- 
tant day  when  class  distinctions,  or  the  claims  of  the 
church,  alone  opened  the  door  of  learned  institutions,  but 
in  a  time  far  nearer  to  us  in  fact  or  in  spiritual  sympathies. 
In  the  youth  of  our  own  fathers,  even  it  was  not  every 
son  of  the  rich  and  cultivated  who  was  given  the  oppor- 
tunity for  colleges  training,  far  less  the  children  of  the 
less  wealthy  or  less  cultivated.  In  the  homes  of  the 
better  to-do  citizens  of  the  cities  one  son  who  looked 
forward  to  a  profession  might  naturally  enough  go  to  col- 
lege ;  in  the  homes  of  struggling,  God-fearing,  brave- 
hearted  men  and  women  the  ablest  or  best  beloved  of 
many  would  be  sent  to  college  and  kept  there  by  the 
self-sacrificing  labor,  not  merely  of  father  and  mother, 
but  of  sisters  and  brothers  as  well.  Higher  education 
was  a  prize  for  one  out  of  many.  Even  to  enter  the  con- 
test unusual  promise  was  necessary.  To  win  the  goal, 
perseverance,  devotion  and  long  continued  struggle  with 
poverty  were  inevitable.      The   boy  from  the  country 


town  who  was  away  at  college,  was  followed  by  the 
anxious  solicitude  and  generous  pride,  not  merely  of  his 
own  household,  but  of  the  entire  community,  and  hon- 
ors conferred  on  him  were  regarded  as  civic  crowns  for 
all  his  fellow  townsmen.  All  who  have  read  that  de- 
lightful little  volume  of  Scottish  stories,  "Beside  the 
Bonnie  Brier  Bush,"  will  recall  the  beautiful  opening 
sketch  of  Domsie,  the  village  schoolmaster,  and  his 
favorite  pupil.  Its  story  is  the  story  of  man}7  another 
town,  and  many  another  master  and  pupil.  Would  to 
God  that  such  devotion  to  a  high  and  noble  life  were 
more  universal ! 

But  to-day  the  doors  of  school  and  college  and  univer- 
sity are  open  wide.  No  boy  or  girl  who  desires  a 
higher  education  need  fail  to  obtain  it.  The  path  that 
was  once  narrow  and  stony  is  now  broad  and  smooth. 
A  thousand  aids  are  open  to  all,  a  thousand  voices  are 
begging  our  youth  to  come  and  take  the  rich  feast  that 
has  been  prepared  by  the  loving  generosity  of  christian 
founders,  a  thousand  rich  rewards  in  prizes,  fellowships, 
honorable  callings,  glorious  opportunities  for  service 
await  the  successful  seekers  after  knowledge.  Let  us 
not  refuse  to  see  the  truth.  The  opportunities  for  higher 
training  have  increased  a  thousand-fold  and  the  number 
who  avail  themselves  of  them  has  increased  in  due  pro- 
portion. Not  only  so ;  the  standards  of  college  life  have 
improved,  the  beauty  and  nobility  of  youthful  enthusi- 


asm  for  God  and  his  truth  have  come  to  be  more  highly 
esteemed,  and  the  pursuit  of  truth  and  the  lives  of  the 
seekers  have  been  made  more  consonant.  We  have  lost 
some  of  the  old  sense  of  the  rarity  and  preciousness  of 
the  opportunity,  but  we  have  gained  in  the  zeal  with 
which  the  opportunity  is  seized  on.  There  is  less  glori- 
fication of  a  college  education,  and  a  far  greater  realiza- 
tion of  the  importance  of  making  a  college  education 
but  a  stepping  stone  to  usefulness.  You  hear  much 
more  to-day  of  college  athletics  than  of  college  studies ; 
of  college  pranks  than  of  college  prayer-meetings ;  but 
go  inside  of  any  of  our  century-old  colleges  and  compare 
the  life  to-day  with  that  of  long  ago,  and  the  universal 
testimony  will  be  that  there  is  more  study  and  more  de- 
votion to  duty  to-day  than  ever  before ;  that  where  once 
it  was  common  to  break  up  college  prayer-meetings  by 
college  pranks,  now  college  prayer-meetings  have  ban- 
ished all  the  more  common  and  brutal  college  pranks  to 
the  limbo  of  the  well-forgotten.  The  vital  christian  life 
of  our  youth  bred  in  constant  christian  activity  is  now 
the  controlling  factor  in  college  life.  College  life  is  less 
and  less  a  thing  apart,  and  more  and  more  a  preparatory 
training  for  a  larger  life  beyond — a  preparatory  training 
which  is  thoroughly  understood  to  carry  in  itself  the 
moulding  influences  of  the  future,  and  to  condition  the 
usefulness  of  the  future  by  its  own  character.  No  longer 
does  a  young  man  imagine  that  he  can  sow  wild  oats  in 


college,  and  reap  good  grain  in  after  years.  A  greater 
publicity  rules  the  college  life.  It  is  true  that  athletics 
and  pranks  occupy  the  larger  space  in  the  secular  press, 
but  it  is  also  true  that  the  athletics  are  largely  influenced 
by  the  christian  students,  and  the  pranks  frowned  on  by 
them,  and  that  Northfield  conferences  and  Christian 
Endeavor  conventions  are  attended  by  far  more  Chris- 
tian college  men  than  are  to  be  found  in  any  other  than 
praiseworthy  affairs. 

The  christian  college  is,  then,  quite  as  much  the  gath- 
ering place  of  our  christian  youth  as  ever.  But  besides 
this  it  should  have  a  strong  personal  attraction  for  every 
3roung  christian.  Every  christian  college  has  written 
over  its  door  the  word  "Opportunity."  Your  oppor- 
tunity, young  christian,  whether  you  are  boy  or  girl. 
God  has  given  you  a  life  to  live.  What  shall  it  be? 
Youth  has  bright  dreams  and  fair  ideals.  Youth  longs 
for  one  thing,  Opportunity.  Youth  cannot  afford  to  sit 
still  like  Mr.  Micawber,  and  wait  for  ' '  something  to  turn 
up."  Opportunity  must  often  be  sought,  must  even  be 
made,  but  here  it  lies  right  athwart  your  path.  There 
are  many  kinds  of  opportunity ;  the  only  kind  I  would 
speak  of  at  this  time,  indeed,  the  only  opportunity  worth 
speaking  of  at  all,  is  the  opportunity  for  christian  ser- 
vice. Every  generation  has  its  own  shibboleths.  It 
matters  little  how  we  phrase  the  truth,  so  we  are  sure 
the  substance  is  the  same.     Duty,  love,  God  and  His 


glory !  All  these  words  may  mean  the  same  to  us.  The 
great  thing  is  to  fully  comprehend  the  great  all-embrac- 
ing fact,  that  christian  service  is  needed  to  give  expres- 
sion to  christian  faith,  and  that  christian  service  means 
the  fulfilment  of  our  duty  to  self,  fellow  men  and  God. 
So  wide  is  this  horizon,  so  far-reaching  the  activity  that 
will  be  needed  to  fill  its  compass,  that  nothing  short  of 
the  highest  training  will  suffice  for  its  accomplishment. 
God  has  already  pointed  out  that  our  first  duty  is  to  self. 
Here  is  one  of  the  points  upon  which  superficial  thinkers 
constantly  go  astray.  No  man  can  help  others  till 
he  has  fitted  himself  to  be  helpful.  No  man  can  help 
save  others  till  he  has  found  Christ.  No  man  can  teach 
till  he  has  learned  how  to  teach  through  being  taught 
himself.  The  great  curse  of  our  times  is  the  tendency 
of  men  half-prepared  for  life's  duties  to  rush  into  the 
largest  fields  of  labor.  Immature,  half-equipped,  ignor- 
ant of  their  own  ignorance,  vainly  assuming  undertak- 
ings of  the  loftiest  character,  they  become  the  sport  of 
every  passing  wind  of  opinion  and  drag  down  others 
with  them.  A  man's  first  duty  to  himself  is  to  prepare 
himself,  not  quickly,  but  thoroughly.  The  question  is 
not  how  soon  he  gets  to  work,  but  how  good  the  work 
he  does  when  he  gets  to  work. 

Each  man's  first  duty  is  to  prepare  himself  thoroughly 
— for  what  ?  Here  again  the  question  is  of  self,  and  yet 
now  with  a  distinct  look  ahead  to  fellow  men  and  up  to 


8 

God.  With  only  self  before  us  we  can  unhesitatingly 
say — for  the  highest  attainable  work.  When  we  come 
to  ask,  What  is  highest? — looking  beyond  self  we  judge 
not  for  self,  but  for  the  service  of  men  and  the  glory  of 
God.  When  we  come  again  to  ask,  What  is  the  high- 
est attainable?  we  must  judge  with  all  humility,  and  yet 
— counting  God  our  helper — without  cowardice.  Such 
preparation  for  such  high  ends  demands  time  and  pa- 
tience. God  sent  His  prophets  to  the  wilderness — what 
a  waste  of  time  and  force,  some  of  our  too  eager  youth 
will  say — yet  they  learned  deeper  lessons  of  God  in  the 
desert  fastnesses  than  were  taught  in  the  schools  of  human 
philosophy.  Yet  others  God  set  in  schools  of  human 
thought;  Moses  in  the  schools  of  Egypt,  Saul  in  the 
school  of  the  Rabbins.  The  Lord  himself  did  not  begin  His 
ministry  till  He  was  about  thirty  years  of  age.  A  ma- 
tured mind  in  a  fully  developed  body  is  essential  to  the 
best  results,  and  these  are  what  our  colleges  aim  to  give. 
The  American  college  of  to-day  is  not  a  fortuitous 
aggregation  of  educational  influences,  but  a  combination 
of  the  carefully  chosen  and  well  tested  means  and  meth- 
ods of  making  not  merely  scholars,  but  men.  Under 
healthful  conditions  of  growth  the  best  ideas  of  all  coun- 
tries have  been  tried  and  so  far  as  they  have  proved  sat- 
isfactory adopted.  The  result  is  a  place  of  highly  organ- 
ized teaching  in  which,  with  a  generally  strong  current 
of  advice  and  direction,  young  men  are  free  to  choose 


9 

courses  and  studies  which  will  fit  them  for  any  kind  of 
usefulness.  There  is  no  limit  to  the  inclusiveness  of  the 
college.  Side  by  side,  as  in  the  town  or  city,  young 
men  fit  themselves  for  the  learned  professions,  the  tech- 
nical pursuits,  for  business,  farming,  or  any  other  voca- 
tion. They  are  taught  first,  and  before  all  else,  that 
training  is  necessary.  The  man,  his  mind,  his  moral 
nature,  must  be  developed  before  he  can  be  useful.  The 
man  cannot  become  a  specialist  before  his  moral  nature 
is  taught  the  necessity  of  labor,  that  earnest,  devoted, 
laborious,  fatiguing,  exhausting  work,  alone  wins  mas- 
tery ;  nor  without  first  conquering  the  mental  vices  of 
assumption,  prejudice,  insufficient  generalization,  etc., 
by  carefully  chosen  exercises  in  mental  gymnastics.  The 
higher  teaching  of  the  class  room  is  constantly  supple- 
mented, moreover,  by  the  often  hard,  but  valuable, 
training  of  college  life,  with  its  struggles  and  tempta- 
tions, its  high  pressure  democracy,  its  keen  criticism, 
pitiless  ridicule,  hatred  of  sham  and  rousing  enthusi- 
asm for  what  it  believes  in ;  the  ball  field  and  the  debat- 
ing society,  the  Christian  Association  and  the  secret  fra- 
ternity, prove  the  metal  of  which  manhood  is  being 
made,  brightening  the  true,  and  finding  the  flaws  in  the 
poor  material. 

The  courses  in  college  have  been  formulated  under 
the  advice  of  the  most  successful  men  in  the  various 
careers ;  college  life  has  grown  up  among  earnest,  vig- 


IO 

orous  young  people  under  the  direction  of  teachers  who 
were  students  of  life  and  character  as  well  as  books.  Is 
it  not  natural  that  in  each  sphere  of  future  usefulness 
the  road  that  leads  through  college  will  be  the  shortest, 
the  smoothest  and  the  best? 

If  we  press  the  duty  of  highest  usefulness  one  step 
farther  we  may  well  claim  that  every  young  christian 
owes  no  small  obligation  to  his  fellow  men  and  to  his 
Ivord,  not  merely  to  prepare  himself  for  some  useful 
work  thoroughly,  but  also  to  choose  the  very  highest 
possible  work.  I  cannot  take  the  time  that  would  be 
needed  to  discuss  the  proposition,  but  I  do  not  hesitate 
to  claim  for  the  ministry  the  highest  right  in  every 
young  christian's  thought.  Then  comes  the  healing  art 
with  its  noble  opportunities,  the  cause  of  justice  wherein 
the  christian  virtues  must  ever  shine,  teaching  in  all  its 
varieties,  and  the  other  callings  in  due  order,  all  low  or 
high  according  to  the  powers  expended  on  them,  and 
the  purpose  in  them,  whether  only  selfish  seeking  after 
wealth  or  ease  or  influence,  or  the  glory  of  God.  If  the 
claims  of  the  ministry  are  not  heeded,  if  no  call  to  it  is 
heard,  and  some  other  calling  is  adopted,  it  must  still 
be  remembered  that  there  is  room  for  christian  service 
in  every  life,  and  that  youth  is  the  time  for  preparation 
for  such  service.  It  will  be  made  richer  and  fuller  by 
higher  training  in  the  languages  and  histories  of  man- 
kind in  their  sciences  and  philosophy,  in  all  that  has 


II 


been  thought  and  done  since  God  set  man  in  the  midst 
of  his  creation.  Such  equipment  is  to  be  had  best 
through  the  college, — for  some  of  the  highest  callings 
only  through  the  college, — and  such  equipment  is  neces- 
sary not  merely  for  the  professional  man  and  the  scholar, 
but  in  this  day  a  thorough  education  is  so  free  that  it  is 
the  ordinary  portion  of  every  earnest  worker  and  think- 
er. It  becomes,  therefore,  the  especial  duty  of  the  chris- 
tian man  to  know  as  much  as  may  be  known  of  God's 
providence  in  His  dealing  with  man  in  history  and  na- 
ture. Out  of  such  a  training  flow  a  larger  human  sym- 
pathy, a  deeper  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  men  and  how 
to  meet  them,  and  above  all,  a  fuller  comprehension  of 
God's  ways  among  men.  Thus  is  bred  the  large  and 
comprehending  mind,  the  fervid  and  hopeful  heart,  the 
intelligent  and  earnest  deed,  and  man  comes  more  and 
more  to  strive  to  improve  every  gift  of  God  that  he  may 
use  every  faculty  for  the  service  of  man  and  the  glory  of 

God. 

Ethelbert  D.  Warfield. 


LAFAYETTE  COLLEGE 

AT  EASTON,  PENNA. 


Lafayette  College  is  beautifully  situated  on  a  bold 
bluff  overlooking  the  junction  of  the  Lehigh  and  Dela- 
ware rivers.  It  is  about  two  hours  distant  from  New 
York  and  Philadelphia  and  is  easily  reached  by  the  Le- 
high Valley,  New  Jersey  Central,  Pennsylvania,  Read- 
ing, and  Delaware,  Lackawanna  &  Western  Railway 
systems.  It  is  well  equipped  with  twenty-seven  build- 
ings of  various  kinds,  apparatus,  libraries,  etc.  The 
curricula  consist  of  seven  courses,  the  Classical,  Latin 
Scientific,  General  Scientific,  Civil,  Mining  and  Elec- 
trical Engineering,  and  Chemistry.  For  catalogues  and 
other  information  address  the  President,  or 

SET.DEN  J.  Coffin,  Ph.D., 

Registrar. 


DATE  DUE 

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PAT.    NO. 

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Manufactured  by 

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